Government officials also told MPs at a virtual meeting of the House of Commons committee on human resources, skills and social development and status of persons with disabilities that more than one-third of the Canadian workforce has applied for the $2,000-a-month CERB to date.

Conservative MP Dan Albas asked Qualtrough about expecting parents who have been told by Service Canada representatives that they can’t access the CERB and should instead apply for early parental leave.

He also noted a question in the application for employment insurance — which many Canadians applied for before the CERB went online — that asks if they are pregnant.

The Canadian Press reported that some expecting mothers who applied for EI in mid-March have not had their application moved over to the CERB because they had said they were pregnant.

Qualtrough said pregnancy does not impact eligibility for the CERB, even if expecting parents anticipate starting maternity benefits soon. Canadians cannot receive any EI benefits at the same time as the CERB.

“We asked that question so that we can anticipate from a back-end system point of view, if somebody is going to be moved on to a different benefit stream, but that does not in any way. impact their eligibility for all of these benefits,” she said.

When Albas noted that expecting mothers have been told to start maternity benefits now instead of claiming the CERB, Qualtrough said “that should not be the case and you have my commitment to make sure that isn’t the case.” She had noted there were “systemic challenges” in the rollout of the benefit that are being examined now.

Prior to Qualtrough’s appearance, Employment and Social Development Canada deputy minister Graham Flack said 7.12 million Canadians have applied for the CERB as of last night.

Flack said that equals more than one-third of the country’s labour force, which totalled 20 million prior to the COVID-19 crisis. A sum of $22.4 billion has been paid out to Canadians to date.

Meanwhile, NDP MP Jenny Kwan said there are single parents ineligible for the CERB who are no longer receiving spousal or child support payments because ex-partners’ income has been affected by COVID-19.

“This leaves single parents scrambling without funds,” she said.

Qualtrough said while such spousal or child support payments aren’t technically considered employment income, single mothers “is something I’m turning my mind to because of the particular vulnerabilities of this group.”

The minister also said she is working with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to better process updating social insurance numbers for temporary foreign workers.

Kwan had noted that some work permits have expired due to COVID-19 but workers are facing backlogs at the department that leave them without the documentation needed to apply for the CERB.

Albas was also critical of what he described as a lack of clarity on the specifics of CERB eligibility, pointing to government ministers who had said seasonal workers were eligible for the CERB but neglected to mention it applies only to such workers who have exhausted their EI benefits.

“Now this covers many seasonal workers but I’ve heard from countless seasonal workers who are not eligible but believe they are CERB-eligible,” he said.

Albas also noted that ministers have said students were eligible so as long as they made $5,000 in the last year without mentioning that losing work due to COVID-19 was another requirement.

Qualtrough said those who applied for the CERB “in good faith, there’s no significant consequence, except they may be asked at some point to pay that money back.”

Flack said the goal is to launch the new $1,250 Canada Emergency Student Benefit by mid-May. He said 43 per cent of Canadian students — more than two million in total — were working in February and had earned $5,000 in income in the last year.

Conservative MP Raquel Dancho had raised concerns that many students have waited for several weeks without any form of government income support.

Qualtrough also told the committee that legal advice received from Justice Canada suggested changes for CERB eligibility allowing some who have not stopped working to claim the benefit would not need new legislation “through a broad interpretation of the law.”